Pyro, if you don't mind, I would like your take on the current situation. Do you think the media is blowing it out of proportion? I do know there is a danger, but they fail to mention influenza in general kills anywhere from 250,000 to 300,000 people annually.
Phil
Phil,
My take is that the situation right now is just a little too early to say anything concrete and yet the media is acting like all the facts are known and absolute. Yes, the media is blowing it out of proportion, they always do. You are quite correct to say that "typical" flu kills many many people every year and we basically never hear about it because it all happens at the "normal" times. What is happening here is a bit abnormal but not too out of the ordinary in the grand scheme. Basically a new strain that was not in the predictive model popped up at the end of the "flu season". This happens often enough actually and usually they just add components of that flu to the next years vaccine batch cause odds are it will be one of the strains that come around the following season (and they are already planning on doing that with this one.) However, usually these late poppers come up in a country with a well established medical infrastructure so they do not cause a big stir because the do not burn as hot and fast as this one.
Do I think this strain is dangerous? Yeah, but then I think all flus bear that consideration because lots of people just fob them off.
Do I think this strain is necessarily more dangerous that a typical seasonal flu? Jury is still out on that one but from a personal stand point, no I think it is within the bell curve of seasonal flu.
Do I think this one has the potential to start another pandemic? Sure, anything is possible.
Do I think it likely this will be the next great pandemic? Not really, but again anything is possible.
Are more people going to die from it? Absolutely.
Was it engineered by the government to kill us all?
At the end of the day I think we just need to let the influenza experts work on this and get a more solid set of facts before we all run screaming to our bomb shelters. Till then I advocate prudent behavior. Do not cough on your neighbor, wash your hands and go to you doctor if you exhibit flu symptoms and can plot a direct line of human to human transmission to Mexico (i.e. If you are sick and your brother just got back from spring break in Mexico and he is sick, you ought to go to the Dr. Flipside being if you are sick and you have not been to Mexico and none of your friends have been to Mexico and none of your friends friends have been to Mexico and no one else you know is sick... Odds are pretty good you do not have this flu...)